RFID Explained: A Primer on Radio Frequency Identification Technologies

Authentication is an essential issue for any organization. Previously, automated authentication was present using punch cards system, but it had security issues. Now days, organizations prefer to have biometrics based authentication. But using biometrics applications is very costly and time consuming. We can derive a time and cost effective solution for this problem using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). Using feature provided by RFID to detect multiple individuals with very short amount of time and provide security with image pattern matching algorithm. To implement this system, we will interface camera with RFID enabled system which will use Low Frequency (LF) RFID tags. On every detection the camera will capture photograph. Then authentication is processed by using image pattern matching algorithm. Such system will be cost and time effective. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is old technology but more widely used in location tracing and tracking applications, due to wider reading ranges, and larger memory capacities, making it a key contributor to the growth of the radio technology industry. Many large corporations are interested in research and development within the field of RFID due to potential growth in various RFID applications. The people management system is an application where masses data needs to be collected and managed in a short duration. But due to authentication issues with this technology makes it less effective. RFID is an automated data collection technology in which radio communication for data transfer across two entities: a reader and a tag. The tag has two sections: one for radio communication and other for data storage. The tags are broadly classified into 3 categories namely active, passive and semi passive. The active tags have an internal power source e.g. a battery, which limits the life time. A passive tag doesn't have a power source and obtain the energy from the magnetic field of the reader. These types of tags are smaller, cheaper and can be used for long time. The scope of the paper is limited to passive tags. The functionality of RFID Passive tags is very simple. When a tag comes in the vicinity of the reader, it detects the radio signals generated by the reader and start to transmit the data stored in the memory. The radio signal generated by the reader offers the power needed to function and the synchronization data for communication between two entities. RFID has emerged as a key technology for automatic data collection. Using this, one can speed up authentication process. Every individual having RFID enabled identity can be detected in very short amount of time. But problem of secured authentication comes into the picture here. One way is proceeding with camera and matching the pattern for individual's photograph.

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology successfully integrates radio transmitter and receiver, small size memory space and control circuitry to remotely store and retrieve data via wireless RF transceiver. As low-cost RFID tag can be massively manufactured by semiconductor industry, new applications associated with RFID technology have emerged rapidly such as inventory tracking, book storage and management, and airport baggage handling. Generally an RFID system is composed of many RFID tags (or tagged objects), at least one RFID reader, and one backend application system with database. An RFID tag gains its operation energy from query signals that are radio waves transmitted by RFID reader. Once a tag responds the query with its stored information to RFID reader, usually a unique identity number or string, the RFID system can recognize the tag carrier and perform required business logic operation. As RFID technique is widely used in supply chain management, the corresponding RFID application systems are expected to process and manage large amount of tagged objects at a predefined period of time regularly. Therefore, for large-scaled RFID applications, tag reading throughput is very critical since it will affect the total data processing time. To measure tag reading throughput of a RFID system, two performance criteria are usually adopted: tag reading delay and reader energy consumption [5]. As RFID reader and tag always communicate over a shared wireless channel, it is very easy to have signal collisions during a normal tag identification process when multiple tags exist in reader’s interrogation area. Signal collision results in query or data retransmission and eventually increases communication overhead and time delay of tag identification. Hence, an efficient tag collision arbitration mechanism is very important and critical for RFID systems to achieve effective performance. Existing RFID tag identification schemes can be classified into aloha-based solutions [3, 10, 12-13, 16, 21, 23-24] and tree-based solutions [1, 2, 4, 6-9, 14-15, 17-20, 22]. In aloha-based schemes, a reader estimates the number of tags in its interrogation area and broadcasts the total number of timeslots to each tag. Then each RFID tag randomly selects its own timeslot to transmit its ID without knowing which timeslots have been selected by other tags. By distributing tag responses to distinct timeslots instead of getting all tag responses at the same time, aloha-based schemes effectively reduce the probability of signal collision. However, aloha-based schemes have tag starvation problem in which certain tags may not

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become widespread thanks to its important advantages over traditional identification technologies, like barcodes. Compared to this technology, RFID is, in fact, able to cover larger distance and does not require line-of-sight, that represent important improvements in the considered field of application. An RFID system is formed by a set of n tags, that represent clients in the identification process, and a tag reader, that is the identification server. Each tag is associated with an identifier (ID), that must be transmitted to the reader upon receipt of a suitable identification query. Tags can be active, i.e. provided with an independent power supply (like a battery), or passive. In the latter case, tags depend on energy provided by the tag reader through its queries (Want, 2006). For this reason, active tags can have some data processing ability, while passive tags are limited to doing only elementary operations and replying to the reader’s queries. An important issue in Radio Frequency Identification systems concerns the reading of colocated tags, that must be managed through suitable Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, specifically designed for low power devices. Efficiency of MAC protocols for RFID systems directly influences the time needed by the tag reader for completely identifying a set of co-located tags, so it has great impact on the whole system performance. A deep analysis of the MAC technologies adopted in RFID is the aim of this chapter. We denote by Ttot(n) the time needed by the tag reader for completely identifying a set of n tags. Under ideal conditions, it should be Ttot(n) = nTpkt, where Tpkt is the time needed to transmit one identification packet. However, in order to ensure collision-free transmission to each tag, a MAC protocol is needed that, inevitably, produces a time waste with respect to the ideal condition. The time actually needed for identification depends on several factors, like the technology adopted, the working frequency, etc. So, RFID systems can exhibit very different reading rates, typically ranging between 100 Tag/s and 1000 Tag/s. The most common MAC protocols used in RFID systems can be grouped into two classes: deterministic protocols and stochastic protocols. Deterministic protocols basically coincide with tree traversal algorithms: all RFID tags form a binary tree on the basis of their identifiers, and the reader explores the tree in a systematic way, by repeating queries based on bit masks. Randomness is only in the tree structure (due to the choice of the co-located tag set), while the algorithm execution is pre-determined. Stochastic MAC protocols are instead based on the framed slotted Aloha (FSA) algorithm, that requires each tag to make a constrained pseudo-random choice of an integer number in order to reduce the probability of collisions.

Oilfield tubulars (typically metallic pipes) and other types of oilfield equipment are typically stored in outdoor areas and may be scattered around the field. Managing these types of inventory is challenging and costly, as it requires significant labor resources. Therefore, inventory inaccuracy is common, and data-driven decisions may not be possible in a timely manner. We propose the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) for tracking oilfield tubulars and similar, outdoor-stored, equipment. Our proposed application utilizes passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID technology that enables capturing unique serial identification numbers that are attached to inventory items from a distance of several meters. Passive UHF RFID tags require no batteries to operate. Typical tag cost is low. Each tag is placed on an inventory item and corresponds to a database entry containing specific information about this item. The tag communicates its serial number using power provided by an RFID reader radio transmission. The RFID reader is securely mounted to the underside of a UAV flown over the field. Captured RFID tags are either stored locally and retrieved once the UAV lands, or are wirelessly transmitted to a constantly updating inventory database. In addition to tag ID, the captured data typically includes time and date stamp, as well as location data. This research project included the design and manufacturing of an enclosure to house a RFID reader system which includes a host computer, embedded reader, antenna, power source, and necessary components for user interface. Specialized mounts were designed and manufactured to attach the enclosure and antenna to the UAV. The project incorporated the development of "middleware", specialized software installed on the host computer to communicate with the reader. The reader handles low-level communication with the antenna. To reduce network traffic, event management and data filtering are efficiently performed. The results of several UAV flights in experimental areas are presented and discussed. Various brands of passive RFID tags for oilfield applications were tested. Particular attention was given to population density of the items, stacking configuration, vertical altitude distance between reader and tags, and time to collect inventory data for a given area of surveillance. As RFID applications are increasing in the oil, gas, solar, and other sectors of the energy production industries, UAVs can effectively be used to get important operational and inventory data. UAV use is particularly appealing in inaccessible and remote locations.

The increasing need for automated surveillance systems in indoor environments such as airports, warehouses, production plants, etc. has stimulated the development of intelligent systems based on mobile sensors. Differently from traditional non-mobile surveillance systems, those based on mobile robots are still in their initial stage of development, and many issues are currently open for investigation (Everett, 2003; DehuaI et al., 2007). The use of robots significantly expands the potential of surveillance systems, which can evolve from the traditional passive role in which the system can only detect events and trigger alarms, to active surveillance in which a robot can be used to interact with the environment, with humans or with other robots for more complex cooperative actions (Burgard et al., 2000; Vig & Adams, 2007). A major challenge in surveillance tasks using mobile robots is that of providing the robot with a suitable knowledge of the environment to both navigate safely and perform inspection tasks. Furthermore, in order to effectively exploit mobility and multifunctionality, it is important to develop integrated control systems, capable of addressing simultaneously a number of problems, such as task planning, dynamic task sequencing, resolution of conflicts for shared resources, event-based feedback control. These issues are part of our current research concerning the development of a multi-sensor Surveillance Mobile Robot (SMR). The SMR consists of a commercial mobile robot (see Fig. 1), which is equipped with various sensors including a laser rangefinder and a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) device, and takes advantage of a hybrid control architecture to implement both high-level functions, like mission execution monitoring, and low-level reactive control. So far, several behaviours and tasks have been implemented and experimented. In this chapter, we focus on environment mapping and exploration using RFID technology. An RFID device typically consists of radio frequency (RF) tags, a reader with one or more antennas, and software to process the tag readings. The reader interrogates the tags, receiving their ID code and other information stored in their memory. Tags can be either passive or active. Passive tags are activated by the electromagnetic field generated by the RFID antenna. Active tags, instead, are powered by an on-board battery (Finkenzeller, 2003). Applications of RFID include inventory management, industry automation, ID badges and 2

Device-free object tracking provides a promising solution for many localization and tracking systems to monitor non-cooperative objects, such as intruders, which do not carry any transceiver. However, existing device-free solutions mainly use special sensors or active RFID tags, which are much more expensive compared to passive tags. In this paper, we propose a novel motion detection and tracking method using passive RFID tags, named Twins. The method leverages a newly observed phenomenon called critical state caused by interference among passive tags. We contribute to both theory and practice of this phenomenon by presenting a new interference model that precisely explains it and using extensive experiments to validate it. We design a practical Twins based intrusion detection system and implement a real prototype by commercial off-the-shelf RFID reader and tags. Experimental results show that Twins is effective in detecting the moving object, with very low location errors of 0.75 m in average (with a deployment spacing of 0.6 m).

Every year researchers and engineers are finding new and useful applications for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems (Finkenzeller, 2003). Because of the growing use of RFID systems, many different areas of research have also been developed to improve the performance of such systems. A few of these areas of research include novel antenna designs (Rao et at., 2005; Calabrese & Marrocco, 2008; Amin et al. 2009), analysis on the backscatter properties of RFID tags (Yen et al., 2007; Feng et al., 2006), mutual coupling between RFID tags (Li et al., 2008; Owen et al., 2009) and the deployment of RFID systems to complex and extreme environments (Qing & Chen, 2007; Sanford, 2008). There are many aspects to each area of research in RFID. A major topic in many of these areas involves research on the antenna design for RFID tags. This chapter will focus on the design of efficient space-filling antennas for passive UHF RFID tags. First, an introduction to RFID systems is presented. This is done by describing the major components in a RFID system and how they communicate. Then, the particular backscattering properties of a passive tag are described from a unique electric field integral equation standpoint and from an overall systems perspective (i.e., using the Friis transmission equation). This discussion will then be followed by a section describing a practical design process of various space-filling antennas for passive tags. Finally, a summary of future work and a conclusion about the chapter is presented.

Summary form only given. Indoor tracking and localization is a crucial ingredient in many ubiquitous computing applications and robotics. In many applications there is the need to know the location of the objects. While in the near future everything will be tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, the localization of these tags in their environment is becoming an important feature for the RFID based ubiquitous computing applications. Due to its lower cost and its technical capabilities, RFID tagged object tracking can have a wide diverse variety of applications including scientific, military, and public safety. In this paper we propose a tracking algorithm for objects attached by UHF RFID tags by means of two RFID antennas and landmarks to reduce the localization cost and environment complexity. This algorithm uses RFID map made from passive or active references tags with known location (landmarks) to locate any unknown tag detected by the RFID reader antennas. It measures the distances between the readers and the common detected tags using the large scale path loss propagation model, and calculates the distance between the unknown tag and all the detected landmarks (inter-tags distance). With the multilateration technique the system is able to estimate the position of the unknown tag. The location estimation of the target will be independent to the reader's position. The research challenge corresponds to achieve an accurate indoor tracking system using two mobile RFID readers taking in consideration the limitation of RFID technology. This tracking algorithm is based on received signal strength (RSS) measurement to measure the reader-tags distance and target-landmarks distance to estimate the target location. To minimize the effect of the RSS and the process measurement noises on the position estimation, maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), map matching and Kalman filter are applied. Here, we investigate the use of Kalman filter to improve the precision and RFID map matching to improve the accuracy. Results obtained after simulations demonstrate the validity and suitability of the proposed algorithm to provide high performance level in terms of accuracy and scalability.

The characterization of radio frequency (RF) propagation for passive UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) systems has previously garnered much interest in the industry, predominantly due to its efficient utilization in the supply chain environment. The passive tags utilized in this system do not contain a power source, and typically harnesses energy from the reader system, which is an interrogator module. Due to the passivity, and backscatter communication technique used for communication with the reader, the passive UHF RFID tag has been often discussed in the context of metallic, as well as liquid environments [1–3]. These discussions have often resulted in the need for metrics, which would help alleviate the complexities that exist in the tagging of objects in various industries and application, not limited to the supply chain [4]. However, the point that has been often times neglected is the fact that different types of liquid present varying types of issues to the readability of the passive tag. The varying effect can be described due the changes in fundamental dielectric constant parameters, such as the relative permittivity (ɛ r ), relative permeability (μ r ), conductivity (σ), magnetic loss factor (tan δ μ ), and mass density (ϱ), as well as other more fundamental physical characters, such as dimensional constrains and volume.

Application of RFID technology to prevention of collision accident with heavy equipment

In this paper, a novel broadband Tag antenna for ultra-high frequency (UHF) near-field and far-field radio-frequency identification (RFID) applications is presented. This antenna is printed on an Rogers RT/duroid 5880 substrate with an overall size of 68 × 19.7 × 0.787 mm. The simulated bandwidth of the proposed Tag antenna is more than 100 MHz (860-960 MHz), which can cover the entire UHF RFID band. The proposed structure can generate a strong and uniform H-field distribution in the region around the antenna. Measurements show that the antenna operating confirms good performance of Tag identification for near-field and far-field UHF RFID applications.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been considered the “next revolution in supply chain management” (Srivastava, 2004, p. 60). Current research and development related to RFID focuses on the manufacturing and retail sectors with the aim of improving supply chain efficiency. After the manufacturing and retail sectors, health care is considered to be the next sector for RFID (Ericson, 2004). RFID technology’s potential to improve asset management in the health sector is considerable, especially with respect to asset management optimization. In fact, health expenses have increased substantially in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in recent years. In Canada, the public health budget amounted to $91.4 billion (CAD) for the year 2005–2006 compared to $79.9 billion in 2003–2004 (CIHI, 2005). Moreover, the health care industry has been the focus of intense public policy attention. In order to curb this upward trend, the public heath sector in Canada is subject to strict budget constraints. Among the different alternatives for reducing expenditures, the improvement of asset management within the different health institutions appears to be worthwhile. RFID technology seems to be a viable alternative to help hospitals effectively manage and locate medical equipment and other assets, track files, capture charges, detect and deter counterfeit products, and maintain and manage materials. In other words, health care organizations would benefit particularly from RFID applications. The main objective of this study is to investigate the potential for RFID technology within one specific supply chain in the health care sector.B ased on a field study conducted in a large nonprofit hospital, this article tests some scenarios for integrating RFID technology in the context of two warehousing activities. We will first introduce the context of the health care sector and the current applications of RFID technology in that sector. The next section presents the methodological approach that was used in the study. The research findings and their implications are then discussed. Finally, some closing remarks are made.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a generic term for a variety of active and passive RF technologies that wirelessly convey object identification information. RFID technologies encompass multiple frequency bands and different mechanisms of information transfer: Low Frequency (LF) and High Frequency (HF) RFID tags typically use inductive coupling, Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) and microwave RFID typically use electromagnetic wave propagation although they often operate in near-field application scenarios as well. RFID transponders have varying degrees of sophistication and their design is often a tradeoff between functionality and cost. At one end of the spectrum, there are active RFID tags that offer on-board battery and memory, sensor integration, active RF transmitter and hence communication range up to kilometers albeit at increased costs. At the other end, passive RFID tags rely on a simple load modulation to backscatter ID back to the reader. The tiny ICs of those passive tags are very complex: they contain more transistors than the Intel 80386 processor in the 1985 IBM PC-AT (that processor had about 275,000 transistors) but have lower power consumption than a honeybee’s brain (which consumes about 10 microwatts) and thus can be RF-powered. These tags are range limited to the order of several meters but, at a price point of several cents per tag, are well suited for large-scale, low-cost automatic identification.

A multipurpose near- and far-field switched multiband reader antenna for radio frequency identification (RFID) applications is presented. The proposed antenna is simple, planar, and has three modes of operating frequencies: 915 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. The prototype is realized using nonuniformly distributed turns coil for robust reactive and radiated field performance, leading to a multipurpose near- and far-field antenna in a single unit. Results show performance of the proposed multipurpose antenna in both near-field and far-field region and demonstrate its suitability for various RFID applications.

The development of context-aware control for smart space applications becomes popular recently, in which radio frequency identification (RFID) plays an important role. For an indoor context-aware smart space system, RFID tags and readers are utilized to locate object coordinates, cf. GPS utilizes GNSS for capture outdoor location information. Previous researches proposed to deploy regularly spaced reference tags, based on which the space location of target object tag can be estimated. Due to tag signal collision and received signal errors, the estimation accuracy is limited. We propose to utilize more than one RFID readers and control the reading power to eliminate estimation error. Passive tags that are cost effective are deployed for dense tag grid, e.g., for high accuracy location estimation. Experiments show that the proposed method can significantly reduce the estimation error from 69 cm to be under 15 cm. This RFID-based object location system can be applied to help people to locate personal belongings. In addition, a video surveillance system can be integrated with the object location method to provide context-awareness service.